Balloon Therapy for blocked ears

[drwendy]

A follow up to my visit....my ENT at home says he thinks I did experience barotrauma on my dives due to "eustacian tube dysfunction" by which he means congested tubes from my allergies. Then the fluid behind the eardrum got secondarily infected and ruptured my eardrum. I should be clear to dive in another month or so, and he gave me a script for Rhinocort Aqua nasal spray to use this month (and any season for a month before I dive) in hope of clearing out my sinuses so I can equalize better. The scary thing about all this is that I never felt it coming...I didn't think I had any more trouble than usual equalizing on that dive, which worries me that it could happen again and I won't know until it's too late.....but I guess that's one of the many perils of the sea.

 

[fmerkel]

If you didn't watch Dr. Kay's video I strongly suggest you do so. Also read his article on clearing http://faculty.washington.edu/ekay/
Middle Ear Barotrauma: A tutorial on prevention of Ear Squeeze.

Do a little research on the DAN site and you'll find you are among a large crowd. You would benefit from getting in "touch" with your inner ear so you can feel easily what is going on and takes steps to remedy it or abort dives that aren't going well. If you only dive occasionally on vacations then being out of practice and the pressure and expense of the vacation can make this a challenge. On group trips that I've gone on it's not unusual for about 1/3 of the divers to have problems by the 2nd-3rd day. Almost invariably these are vacation/occasional divers.

Fritz

 

[drwendy]

Loved Dr. Kay's video and his articles...wish he was closer to Cincinnati so I could go see him personally!

I dive all summer....most every weekend in the local quarries. The scary thing is that I never felt like I had any trouble on this dive....no pressure, thought I was equalizing just fine. I would feel better if I had gotten some sort of warning that I was doing damage, but it just felt fine, like any other dive. A great part of my problem is my allergies..I seem to do a lot better equalizing when I'm on vacation away from my allergens, and have to med quite a bit to eq here at home. I feel that I can "pop" my tubes any time I want to just sitting here, and I always pre-pressurize....scary that I thought everything was fine and yet I ruined my whole vacation in one dive. I'm headed back for a checkout with my ENT in 2 weeks, then 2 more later I'm off to Mexico where I hope I don't run into trouble (especially since my ears won't be "warmed up" since I've been banned from the water for the past month now).

Happy diving!

Wendy

 

[fmerkel]

You can practice equalizing out of the water. It does help and if you pay attention to what is happening you will increase you sensitivity and possibly help ward off problems.

Fritz

 

[drwendy]

I've always been afraid to practice equalizing out of the water....when I was a kid somebody must have told me you could blow your eardrums out blowing too hard, and now I'm scared. Bet that means I don't blow hard enough in the water, either. I can make them crack pretty good just moving my jaw around, but that never is enough in the water to get me down. I'm just 4 weeks from my trip....hope my ears are going to be ready!

 

[crpntr133]

I dive all summer....most every weekend in the local quarries. The scary thing is that I never felt like I had any trouble on this dive....no pressure, thought I was equalizing just fine. I would feel better if I had gotten some sort of warning that I was doing damage, but it just felt fine, like any other dive. A great part of my problem is my allergies..I seem to do a lot better equalizing when I'm on vacation away from my allergens, and have to med quite a bit to eq here at home. I feel that I can "pop" my tubes any time I want to just sitting here, and I always pre-pressurize....scary that I thought everything was fine and yet I ruined my whole vacation in one dive. I'm headed back for a checkout with my ENT in 2 weeks, then 2 more later I'm off to Mexico where I hope I don't run into trouble (especially since my ears won't be "warmed up" since I've been banned from the water for the past month now).

Happy diving!

Wendy

I did something similar but didn't have any damage. On my first check out dive I got to about 15ft, thought everything was fine. NOT. A shooting pain went through my left ear. Needless to say I came to the surface. ENT said that my sinuses were blocked due to allergies. Being a diver also he unerstood and said that it is possible to go that far and not feel any pressure and then everything lets go.

 

[baitedstorm]

ya know, I realize blowing up balloons sounds wacky, but rest assured, my ears haven't kept me out of the water since I started doing it. The right side still feels "full" when I wake up in the morning, but I'm noticing more and more it takes less time for it to "drain". I only blow up the balloon maybe twice a day now. Something's got to be working. BTW, clearing under the water wasn't as big of a deal as it clearing on the surface. Good luck Wendy, I hope your trip goes well

 

[fmerkel]

I think Dr. Kay even addresses that in the video, "ear fear". You need to be neither too forceful, nor too meek. That's one reason he developed the "bazooka". You can make your own pretty easily. Since it really is a practice thing you need to practice to do it or possibly expect problems in the water.

Fritz